The 1968 Leeds municipal election was held on 9 May 1968.[1] Following extensive boundary changes, the whole council was up for election. The re-warding increased the number of wards by two, up to 32 wards, raising in-turn the councillor total by six, to 90, and the aldermen total up two to 30.[2] [3]
In total ten wards were abolished, twelve created and eighteen remained.
Abolished:
Created:
The election followed national patterns of the Conservatives inflicting resounding defeats upon the Labour party, winning representation in all but five wards with a crushing 75 seats at the hand of their highest vote since 1951 and a record vote share. Labour representation was confined to City, East Hunslet, Holbeck and Middleton (although coming within a straw for the third seat in Whinmoor) as they picked up their lowest post-war vote and vote share. The Labour collapse also seen the smaller party make gains, as the Liberals won representation on the council for the first time in the post-war period[4] via comfortably winning the three newly created Castleton seats and the Communists, who fielded a full-slate for the first and only time, more than tripled their previous records in both vote share and vote figure.
As a result, the Conservatives gained control of the council for the first time since 1952, with a whopping majority of 80.
The result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the Council after the elections:
| Party | valign=top colspan="2" style="width: 30px" | Previous council | valign=top colspan="2" style="width: 30px" | New council | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cllr | Ald | Cllr | Ald | ||
| Conservatives | 43 | 9 | 75 | 25 | |
| Labour | 41 | 19 | 12 | 5 | |
| Liberals | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| Total | 84 | 28 | 90 | 30 | |
| 112 | 120 | ||||
| Working majority | |||||